♪ ♪ >> the honorable kevin mccarthy of the state of california, having received a majority of the votes cast, is duly elected speaker of the house of representatives. [cheers and applause] paul: welcome to the "journal editorial report". i'm paul gigot. the longest congressional battle since 1850 is finally over on the 15th ballot. fox news' alexandria hoff wraps

up a dramatic night and early morning on capitol hill. >> reporter: out took 14 failed votes, intense negotiations to flip more than a dozen holdouts in a final tally that took place well after mid might. it ended with speaker mccarthy being handed the gavel. he was met with a standing to ovation. >> from the great state of california and the next speaker of the 118th congress, kevin mccarthy. [cheers and applause] >> that was easy, huh? [laughter] i never thought we'd get up here. ing. >> reporter: speaker mccarthy squeezed by with 216 votes, 212 democrats backed congressman hakeem jeffries. six republicans in total voted present. since they weren't nos, the threshold for majority was lowered to 215. one moment showed just how impassioned things had become.

congressman-elect at the time mike rogers of alabama was physically restrained by other members after attempting to confront congressman matt gaetz. the victory came after that,s just one more round later. >> i may not know all of you, some of you are new, but i hope one thing is clear after this week, i never give up. >> reporter: the first matter of business, swearing in of the 118th congress. that was delayed by the stalemate that started tuesday and was led largely by members of the house freedom caucus. that resistance broke down yesterday as mccarthy agreed to key concessions. pennsylvania congressman scott perry is freedom caucus chair. he changed his vote to support mccarthy in the 12th round. >> i think what we showed last night is, yes, we can get there, but we're not going to ignore individual voices, because each one of those voices represents three-quarters of a million americans, and their voice counts too. >> reporter: congressman perry feels that the agreements made

such as the ability to oust mccarthy more easily are not concessions, but wins for the american people. paul? paul: alexandria of in washington, thank you. let's bring in our panel, columnist dan henninger and kim strassel and editorial board member kyle petersen. so, kim, what finally got kevin mccarthy the votes after so many days? >> well, you know, you saw scott perry talking there, he and chip roy and a couple of the other leaders of the holdouts. in the end, i think what really matters was their decision to actually play ball and continue to talk and continue to make some agreements. once they turned to support him, he was almost will, the pressure on the holdouts became very intense. apparently, learn some late night phone calls too with donald trump who put some influence on it. in the end, those that really opposed him, they didn't cast a vote for him, but by voting present, it was enough to get him over the line.

paul: yeah, that's fascinating. dan, it seems to me one of the big factors here too was there just wasn't an alternative candidate. the holdouts didn't support anybody else really who could have gotten 218. i was struck by some reporting that showed that the number two republican in the house, steve is scalise, he wasn't even going to be supported by the people. so it's kind of mccarthy or bust. [laughter] >> yeah, it really was. and, you know, that sort of points out one of the biggest problems of this whole exercise is that the opposition to kevin mccarthy had never really laid the groundwork for doing this. there was no suggestion, i mean, there was a slight suggestion that they were going to oppose him, but they never coalesced around somebody, and no one stepped forward to stand in other than perhaps if andy biggs who didn't get very many votes at all. so in the absence of that alternative, it was always going to be kevin mccarthy or chaos and, obviously, the chaos was not going to be allowed to go on

indefinitely. if so it was just a matter of grinding people down, making concessions, and as kim was just suggesting bringing over most of those 20 the holdouts. -- 20 holdouts. once it got down to about 7, it was clear kevin mccarthy would, indeed, be the speaker of the house. paul: in the last congress, nancy pelosi had the exact same size majority, and yet she was able to -- and she had some people who weren't thrilled with her after democrats lost seats in 2020, but she was able to become speaker without the dissent. mccarthy gained seats this time, didn't lose 14 like she had, and yet he had so much trouble. what's the difference between the republican and democratic coalitions? >> well, part of it might be a difference of ideology. when you're a democrat and the goal is to get programs funded, it's easy enough to add more programs into the bill whereas some of these conservatives want spending cuts which are unpopular with even some of their conservative colleagues. some of it might be the media

environment. people hold out to decide they're going to go with the majority on the democratic side get plaudits whereas holdouts on the republican side get attacked in some quarters of the conservative media environment. but it is a remarkable parallel here. think about all the legislation that a nancy pelosi, despite the slim majority, was able to get passed and put on president biden's desk and signed. and now the question is whether republicans in the next two years are going to get anything done. paul: well, we're going to talk about that, but, kim, what did you make of kevin mccarthy's speech in the wee hours? i actually thought it was quite impressive. service gracious -- it was gracious, it was, i thought, reaching out democrats and even his republican opponents. but what did you think? >> yeah, i totally agree, paul, and it was what was absolutely called. look, republicans just went through an absolutely ugly week, and there are very hurt feelings on all sides. he's going to have enough trouble as it is given some of

the concessions he made, and we'll talk about those. but just actually unifying again. it was gracious, it was welcoming to the new members who had to wait a long time, and it made an overture to the democrats, and that's smart of him because he may end up needing their help at a certain point given the slim majority and the cracks in his own coalition. paul: yeah. if he can't get 218 from republicans, he's going to have to reach out to jeffries, will he not, kim? >> yes, absolutely. and this was good -- let me say, too, jeffries was gracious in handing over the gavel. i'm sure democrats weren't thrilled to be there all that time, they kind of gloried in the republican chaos. but it was a good start and, again, he's going to have a lot of work to do getting people back together in his party. if he had stepped up there and looked unhappy or willing to punish someone, that would have been a bad start. paul: all right. when we come back, with the speaker fight behind them, republicans look ahead to the 118th congress. so what does this week's

showdown say about their ability to govern these next two years? ♪ ♪ >> at this point it's not even at about a speaker, it's about whether the republican party can actually govern. ♪ ♪ type 2 diabetes? discover the ozempic® tri-zone. in my ozempic® tri-zone, i lowered my a1c, cv risk, and lost some weight. in studies, the majority of people reached an a1c under 7 and maintained it. ozempic® lowers the risk of major cardiovascular events such as stroke, heart attack, or death in adults also with known heart disease. and you may lose weight. adults lost up to 14 pounds. ozempic® isn't for people with type 1 diabetes. don't share needles or pens, or reuse needles. don't take ozempic® if you or your family ever had medullary thyroid cancer, or have multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2, or if allergic to it. stop ozempic® and get medical help right away if you get a lump or swelling in your neck, severe stomach pain, or an allergic reaction. serious side effects may include pancreatitis. gallbladder problems may occur. tell your provider about vision problems or changes.

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♪ >> don't judge us on how we start, watch how we finish. and i think by having the disruption now really built the trust with one another and learn how to work together. paul: speaker mccarthy earlier this morning saying this week's leadership fight actually makes the republican congress stronger. we're back with our panel. dan, do you buy the speaker's assertion that this is going to be the one and done, it's all over and now they'll unite? >> well, one may hope that that is one and done, but it remains to be seen. i mean, you know, we got the

impression here for the last few days this week that the government of the united states consists mainly of the republicans in the house of representatives. actually, you may have noticed there were 212 democrats sitting in that chamber the entire time. they might have something to say about all of this. the democrats control the senate, and they control the oval office a, the white house. so any governing that the republicans attempt to do is going to have to go through that process. bear in mind we went through this when john boehner was speaker of the house, we went through it end when pat -- when paul ryan was speaker of the house. and the question is not so much whether the republicans are going to succeed. i mean, ultimately, the president can veto anything they pass. but can they coalesce around, indeed, passing a piece of legislation rather than spending their time cutting each other off which will be the only thing the american public will see? and if the conservatives, or at least the conservative caucus that opposed kevin mccarthy,

spends their time carving him up, i suspect the republicans are going to end up in minority status two years from now. they have to, indeed, show that they can get something passed. paul: and to that point, kyle, the speaker made some really important process concessions to the dissenters, one of which was committee seats on the rules committee which is usually the speaker's tool for deciding what amendments get offered and controlling the floor which is crucial. you lose control of the floor, you lose control of the house. so how big a problem is that going to be for the speaker? >> i think it could be a huge problem when it comes to something like raising the debt limit, which is going to come up later this year. and remember, when we're talking about the debt limit, that's money that congress already has agreed to spend. this is not new spending, it's paying for what's on the credit card right now. and another concession was this rule on the motion to vacate the chair, and so under the concession now any one of these holdouts at any point can

basically call for a referendum again on kevin mccarthy's speakership and say remember that, that messes that we had to go lu in january, do you want to do that again? if not, give us what we want. and i think it's a real problem, and it may cause mccarthy to have to go to hakeem jeffries and democrats for some of these votes. and the question i would ask the holdouts is do you think this increases the likelihood of negotiating power on republicans, or does this make it more likely that hakeem jeffries and democrats will say we don't need to give an inch, because the republicans are going to be a disaster, a mess, chaos over there, and eventually they're going to come around and pass the bill at the last minute that we need to pass, and my view, i guess, is i think it's more likely to be the latter. paul: kim, the only leverage the house has when they don't have the white house and a democratic senate is 218 votes. you have to be able to cohere, and that gives you the leverage to negotiate. if you can't get 218, you have

no leverage. and one of the concessions the speaker purportedly made is to reduce the budget number top line for 2024, fiscal 2024 to 2022 numbers which, if you do the math, could end up with an enormous $75 billion cut for defense if they divide cuts for defense and social welfare spending equally. what do you make of that? >> yeah. this was very alarming to me, paul. now, the republicans that i have talked to have been very quick to say, no, no, no, no, we're not going to do that. look, we can cut domestic spending even deeper and actually raise money to the military if we want to. that's all fine and good to say except for that they have people within the party who are opposed to more military spending, also opposed to more aid for ukraine. and as we saw, you can only lose four votes. so that is not a guaranteed thing. and the other problem, of

course, paul, is you need all 218 of them to to coalesce around them and state your bargaining position, but you may still have a very hard time getting this crossed in the senate and in a white house that are democratically controlled. so the more the chaos there, the more likely it is that bad things are going to happen. paul: dan, i guess, briefly, we got the first test of this coming monday with the vote on the rules package which will include a lot of these concessions, and those aren't going to sit well with some of the traditional republicans. >> it won't, and, you know, their going to negotiate about it -- they're going to negotiate about it, they're going to talk. let's not quite make the mistake of saying that talking is the equivalent of democracy. ultimately, democracy is about holding votes and, yeah, they can argue about this, but eventually they have to set women tle down -- settle down and decide whether a majority wants to move bard or whether they want to spin their wheels through the next two years. paul: when we come back, florida's ron desantis is

sworn in for his second term as governor and takes aim at the dysfunction in washington in an inaugural address that sounded like it could hint at maybe going national for 2024. ♪ ♪

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♪ >> florida's success has been made more difficult by the floundering federal establishment in washington d.c. it wields its authority through a sprawling, unaccountable and and out of touch bureaucracy that that does not act on behalf of us, but instead looms over us and imposes its will upon us. this has caused many to be pessimistic about country's future, some even say that

failure is inevitable. florida is proof positive that we, the people, are not destined for failure. paul: that was florida governor ron desantis on tuesday delivering his inaugural address, taking aim at dysfunction in washington as he touted his record in the sunshine state. it was a speech that sounded to some like a signal of what could be maybe a 2024 presidential campaign rather than a second term as governor. we're back with our panel, dan henninger, kim strassel and kyle peterson. kyle, how did you read the speech? were we overinterpretting that, or are we on to something? >> no, it certainly looked like governor desantis is holding up florida to the nation and saying, look, another model of governance is possible. two things that struck me, there were a couple of grace notes in there, the populist side of things. he talked about the cultural battle over what was taught in florida's schools and said

florida's where woke goes to die. he talked about covid lockdowns and mandates that hit most of the rest of the country. but the other thing i thought was notable was how reaganite the rest of his message was. it was low taxes, light regulation are, school choice, judges who interpret the the law as it was meant to be interpreted. so a lot of that stuff wouldn't have been out of place in an inaugural address by florida governor jeb bush. paul: kim, you know, it struck me that he called out the failing federal establishment, but he didn't say democrat or republican. he just called it the establishment which suggests he's going to take on any, anything in washington and run, if he does run, as an outsider coming in from the provinces to restore order to the corrupt capital city. it's a familiar campaign theme over the decades but often a very effective one. >> yeah. we -- i was just going to say, we have seen this before, and it is very effective. the outsider.

also, look, the thing he's to got going for him as well is a record that actually shows this has worked. one of things he mentioned is the extraordinary number of people who have moved into florida. we obviously saw his election results where he managed to win pretty much every demographic of the vote that was out there including even the urban vote. and so he can say, look, my way works, the people like it, it's very wise of him to not use that republican or democratic label because people who want to expand their coalitions, they offer people a way in to the movement. we saw this, you know, and it does hearken back, as kyle was saying, as something reagan did. so this sounded to me very much like a guy who not only has his eyes on a presidential build, but has a plan for how he wants to do it too. paul: dan, it occurs to me that the function even in the republican house this week could be helpful to desantis with that theme, because it suggests that the republican party really needs leadership, that it

doesn't have another clear leader. donald trump notwithstanding. >> yeah, that's right. you know, keep in mind and this goes back, i think, as well to what just happened with kevin mccarthy in the house. the republicans in the house expected to gain 30 or 40 seats. they thought they were going to have a big majority, and it turns out they lost a lot of elections around the country in the midterms. and it was in large part because of a misreading of the electorate. the electorate was more interested in governing, in moral city than 2016 -- normalcy than 2016 type insurgencies. and i think ron desantis has recognized that because he's emphasizing the success of his governing in florida. the republicans have a good story to tell. not just ron desantis, but glenn youngkin in virginia, a lot of other states run by red governors, arkansas, texas, georgia. that is all about governing, and ron desantis is counting on

the idea that, indeed, people are sick and tired of the dysfunction in washington and are willing to turn to a successful republican outsider. paul: so, kyle, do you think that -- you mentioned the florida record that he is pointing to the as did kim and dan, but what are some of his potential vulnerabilities as a candidate that you might -- at an early stage -- talk about? >> well, there's reports that he's not all that likable, he's not a back slapper and a glad hander, and so if you're picking a candidate to have a beer summit with, he may not be your guy. another is examples of places where he is aiming at populism, i think, is and is missing. so one of them is this investigation he's recently impaneled into vaccine merricks, and he seems to be targeting -- vaccine makers, and he seems to be targeting some of their statements that it would stop infections and transmissions which did not prove to be the

case. on the other hand, the covid virus has mutated several times in the course of this pandemic, and so i find it hard to fault the vaccine makers for not being able to predict all of that. paul: yeah. kim, i agree with kyle on that especially it's a discordant note with what i think is a strength otherwise on covid by desantis which is an opposition to lockdowns, opening schools, you know? he really, that's a big contrast with donald trump, for example, and a lot of other potential candidates. >> yeah. and what worries me is i hope it is not an indication that he is going to wrap his arms around kind of smaller movement in the republican party that is simply going to go out and bash on corporations and very much try to kind of rally the troops in that way. the reagan theme is much stronger, and it's going to help him much more mt. long term. it's tempting to do that, we've seen others in the party turning that way, but i hope this is the not the beginning of that. paul: all right.

fascinating to see. still i ahead, ahead of his trip to el paso tomorrow the, the president rolls out some new border enforcement measures, but will they do any good?busi ♪ through the pandemic, getrefunds.com can see if it may qualify for a payroll tax refund of up to $26,000 per employee, even if it received ppp, and all it takes is eight minutes to get started. then we'll work with you to fill out your forms and submit the application; that easy. and if your business doesn't get paid, we don't get paid. getrefunds.com has helped businesses like yours claim over $2 billion but it's only available for a limited time. go to getrefunds.com, powered by innovation refunds. aah, it's a good day to cough. oh, no! bye, bye cough. later chest congestion. hello 12 hours of relief. 12 hours!! hmmm, ok. not coughing at yoga? antiquing not coughing?

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republicans are always going to run on. but now he was a choice -- they have a choice. they can try to score political points, or they can help solve the problem. they can the help solve the problem and come together to pix the broken system. paul: that was president biden thursday announcing new border enforcement measures while blaming republicans for what he acknowledges is a broken immigration system. the department of homeland security unveiling a new parole process for migrants from cuba, haiti and nicaragua that would allow up to 30,000 a month to enter the legally while vowing to crack down on those who attempt to cross illegally. the president set to stop in el paso, texas, tomorrow on his way to mexico city, his first visit to the southern border. we're back with our panel, dan henninger, kim strassel and kyle peterson. so, kim, after studiously avoiding the border issue for two years, why now? why the attention now? >> yeah, biden discovers we have

a border. it's amazing. [laughter] look, i think that in the may signal, paul, that he's interested in running in 2024. he knows that this is a political liability. if you look at polls out there, while americans can be very sive immigration reform, bipartisan majorities are very concerned about border gets very low marks among those people for it. so there's that. there's also the obvious fact that title 42, which is the public health emergency, covid emergency that the administration had been using to stop the up the border to some degree is ending, and he needed to have some sort of replacement program. so this appears to be their attempt to suggest they do have one. we can talk about whether or not it'll be effective. i don't necessarily think it is, but clearly the president felt political pressure to do something on this finally. paul: another point of pressure, dan, has been from democratic mayors, big city mayors like eric adams in new york who are

suddenly coping with this influx of migrants that are being sent to new york. it's costing, i think the mayor has said more than a billion dollars for new york city. so let's talk the merits, first, of this. is -- are these new enforcement measures going to work? >> no, i don't think they're really going to work, paul, because what seems clear from the past two years is that the dam has burst at the border. i mean, consider the most recent group of migrants coming across from the four countries, cuba, haiti, venezuela and nicaragua. by and large, people were not attempting to come through the border from those four countries, but now they are. and that is not going to stop. anyone who thinks that they can get into the united states is going to russia a border. and -- rush that border. and some of them are going to flow into cities like new york, chicago, los angeles. and what we're looking at here is now a kind of a situation of civil disorder at the border which relates to the civil

disorder in these large northern cities which are kind of beset by crime as well. and there's a sort of fundamental question, a democratic question. we've been talking about the republicans a lot in this program, but the democrats have a real problem of whether they are capable of governing cities or governing the border, and this problem, i think, paul, is simply going to continue to escalate, and i doubt very much that these new biden policies are going to do anything to stem the tide. paul: kyle, the administration's been doing something like this with venezuelan immigrants, migrants, and they have slowed that flow on the border. i guess they're trying to imitate that with these other countries. but one hinge that struck me -- one thing that struck me, they're not proposing anything to change the definition for seeking asylum. you have to pass a so-called credible fear of persecution standard, and that's a very low bar in practice. but he didn't propose any

changes to that. >> right. and to your first point, so his policy seems to have helped with venezuelans, but he's talking about 30,000 from those four countries, that is about 60% of the total people that were encountered crossing the border from those four countries last year. and to dan's point about the flood, there were 2.2 the million border patrol encounters last year, and so it is -- i think this may help at the margins, but what we need is some real, deeper reforms. and president biden says, look, i proposed a comprehensive immigration policy, and republicans won't take it up. but you go look at that policy, it is a nonstarter in congress. part of that policy is to have a pathway to citizenship for anyone who is already here illegally, and put aside whether that's a good policy on the merits, it is not going to get the through the senate, it is not going to get lu a republican house. so if president biden really wanted to help here, he could get into his old senate deal-making mode and say we need

some changes to the asylum laws, we need more border enforcement, we need more immigration judges. we need to fix the delays that are causing people to think that they can get in and stay here while they're working through the system for a year or two. paul: yeah. kim, what's striking to me, the president at several points attacked republicans, said they're responsible for not solving this problem. but you and i have watched this for a long time, and it takes two to mess up this tango. and democrats don't want to deal because a lot of them really do not want my controls on the border. >> right. i mean, and, look, this is a president who actually has spent past two years doing everything humanly possible to poison the well in the senate and the house to get something done by allowing not -- by basically allowing this border chaos because all that has done is put republicans on their guard. there are now more free and more demanding they need and want some sort of border security before they're willing to play ball on an immigration front in

terms of comprehensive reform. if you look at where everyone was a couple of years a, they were far more amenable to a deal than they are now, and that's at biden's feet. obama took up this issue too and dropped it. paul: all right. thank you very much, kim. still ahead, as the war in ukraine drives on, there's growing concern over russia's deepening ties with iran as the biden administration scram bls to stop tehran from supplying drones to moscow. ♪ ♪ anced nutrition. together we support immune function. supply fuel for immune cells and sustain tissue health. ensure with twenty-five vitamins and minerals, and ensure complete with thirty grams of protein. ♪

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♪ paul: as the war in ukraine stretches into the new year, concern is i growing over the increasingly close relationship between moscow and tehran. president volodymyr zelenskyy warning this week that russia is planning a prolonged attack using iranian-supplied drones as the biden administration scrambles to stop future weapons transfers. the treasury department

announcing new sanctions yesterday on iran's aviation and defense industries. let's bring in a senior fellow at the foundation for defense of democracy. welcome, good to see you again. so we first saw iran and russia work together in syria. now can we say with this action in ukraine hat two are really now -- that the two are really now full-fledged wartime allies? >> well, paul, it's a pleasure to be with you, and a belatedded happy new year. this is a sign of the times, that the islamic are republic is going to continue with all sorts of ties be they political, economic, military, intelligence, cyber and other kinds of security ties with america's great power rivals like russia and china. yes, they do compete, particularly in the energy sector, the russians and iranians and, yes, there's historical animosity, but the venn diagram between putin in russia and khamenei in iran

continues to grow. these are two anti-american regimes that are lending a hand to one another to continue the war of imperial aggression abroad. they saved assad, they saved maduro, and now khamenei seems to be underwriting putin's war in ukraine with drones. paul: talk more about the extent of that military corporation. these drones that they're supplying, what's the number, how much of a -- how many, and they're also flying some ballistic missiles too, i gather. >> well, the exact numbers of each set of transfers are up unknown, but the russians continue to use them in large batches and continue to use hem to supplement the long-range strike capabilities that are more expensive to produce at home. so instead of russia firing its own ballistic missiles or cruise missiles at ukrainian civilian infrastructure, it can the fire cheaper iranian-made suicide drones popularly known as kamikaze drones that take out, you know, hydroelectric plants,

energy sites and even target the civilian housing and blocks. so ultimately, this is iran allowing putin to stay in the fight longer to survive the sanctions longer, continue to fight on the cheap. and there is no yet confirmed case of ballistic missile transfers by iran to russia, but if it would, it would mark a significant violation of u.n. security council resolution 2231 as do the drone transfers, and it would be the, you know, fartherrest ranging state to state transfer by iran to date in its own history of a ballistic missile transfer. paul: one of the advantages of these drones is that they're much cheaper to make hand they are to shoot down. it's more expensive, i gather. so iran can keep, can keep supplying these and keep the pressure on ukraine. and i saw one report that suggested that iran was actually building a new factory for these drones. have you seen that? >> yeah, and it's imperative to actually go after the full supply chain. so we know that there are

actually even western components, western tech inside some of these iranian drones that are ultimately transferred to russia. a nightmare she scenario would be the iranians producing these on russian soil, so before that actually does happen, washington needs to really step up the pressure against the sale, supply and transfer networks of these iranian drones as well as go after the procurement, production and proliferation nodes. and the recent sanctions are a good start. the pact hat european union is copy, pasting older sanctions is a good start, but the islamic republic is an asymmetric military power, and it's supplementing russia's conventional military capabilities as we see in the war in ukraine. paul: apart from interdicting or supplying to the supply chain, what else can the united states do? and europe? and, for that matter, israel to stop this flow of arms and keep the pressure on iran to stop doing it? >> well, there's a broader

strategy that would be imperative for the biden administration's take to keep up the heat on iran which is to snap back those older u.n. security council resolutions on iran, finally close the door on a deal that would underwrite the regime's domestic -- in foreign aggression. i think there's a plan the biden administration needs to adopt, one is to tighten export controls both in america and in europe. the second is to step up those sanctions against the sale, supply, transfer networks. the next is to transfer intel about how iran produces these things as well as employs hem on the battlefield. the israelis could be help helpful. then there's obviously the legal component to make sure you have all the apparatus in place, and then finally there's the military component, the offset to make sure the ukrainians have both the short range air defenses like c-ram as well as the longer range missile defenses like the pate rat to --

patriot to devalue these weapons on the battlefield. it needs to be a cocktail. paul: do you think the iran nuclear view view is dead, the president's ambition to revive that, is that finally gone with this support for russia from iran? >> we've seen some good, you know, rhetoric out of both the biden administers and from the europeans -- administration and from the europeanss, but ultimately, the nuclear ball still remains in that maney's court -- that a maney's court. the only way for us to know that the biden administration is really done with the deal is if they formally announce the deal is dead and snap back those older u.n. security council less are pollutions. until we see that happen -- resolutions. until we see that happen, unfortunately, it's just rhetoric. paul: all right. thank you, very inform ty, very much appreciated. when we come back, from a gender bread person to privileged bingo, an eye-opening look at what your tax dollars

pay for when workers at federal agencies undergo diversity and inclusion training. ♪ try boost® high protein with 20 grams of protein for muscle health versus 16 grams in ensure® high protein. boost® high protein. now available in cinnabon® bakery-inspired flavor. learn more at boost.com/tv there's always a fresh deal on the subway app. like this one! 50% off?! that deal's so good we don't even need an eight-time all-star to tell you about it. wait what? get it before it's gone on the subway app! wait... do you use singlecare? no, i have insurance. oh singlecare can actually beat your co-pay. singlecare can also beat the price of your medicare plan. you mean our medicare plan?

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♪ paul: diverse i and inclusion training is now as i routine as many corporate workplaces, but what about the federal government? president biden signed an executive order in 202 21 directing u.s. agencies to increase the availability and use of such training. and our own kyle peterson has obtained hundreds of pages of materials used by the department of veterans affairs, the u.s. army, nasa and others. the documents provide an eye-opening look at what your tax dollars are paying for and the woke values imposed on the federal bureaucracy and u.s. military. kyle, so you've got these materials by filing a freedom of

information act request, right? >> correct. so what the journal published was dozens, probably, of staff trainings, internal documents for the federal government. and to pick a few examples, so the department of the army, the u.s. army had one on its transgender policy. it covers everything from pro nouns to pregnancies -- pronounce -- pronouns. my soldier who is using a single-sex bathroom or shower facility may at any time encounter another soldier who has the anatomy of the opposite sex. the department of jet irans a-- veterans affairs had some training, the gingerbread person. there's a page on privileged bingo. nasa had a tip sheet on microaggressions and, apparently, it is a my microaggression to say that america is a melting pot and also a microaggression to ask an asian person for help with a math problem.

and just to be clear, i mean, not everything was all that interesting. there was plenty of stuff that came over through some of these foia requests that was your standard anti-harassment, anti-realuation training that anybody in -- retaliation training that that anybody would be familiar with. but there was also plenty that i think would be news to taxpayers who are footing the bill. paul: and i guess the agencies don't develop this internally, they hire out contractors to bring this stuff in and do the training, is that your understanding? >> well, it's a little bit of both. what the journal obtained, some of it was made, i think, in house with labels that say u.s. army, the v.a., nasa. some of it was by contractors, but that is a particular problem because there's an exception in the freedom of information act for third party commercial materials, and so there were also some agencies who said that they were not going to hand

anything over because they couldn't under poi ya. it was exempt. foia. so that's a point that, you know, congress or a future president might want to raise, is maybe these agencies should be posting all this stuff on their web pages where it can does not require months of arguing -- [laughter] over a foia request to take a look at what the staff training for government employees looks like. paul: one of the points that is interesting to me is that you have argued that some of the concepts that were fringe concepts in academia, woke ideas, even a decade or a few years ago have now migrated into being mainstream government policy. tell us a lit are -- a little bit about that. >> yeah. is so there's a term in one of these that's a portmanteau, and it basically is defined as a particular bias against black women. and this is a term that was

coined on a blog in 2010 and is now in a training that is being presented to government employees. and as i said, i mean, i think that a lot of this stuff would come as a surprise to people and would be considered pretty out of the mainstream and it's in a political realm. we end up with a president ron desantis, i think he might have some thoughts about these kind of training materials. paul: yeah. he's actually going after some of that stuff in florida. so can the new republican congress do anything about it? i guess maybe use the power of the purse? >> sure. i mean, i think they could defund it. i i think they could probably defund monies for certain concepts. so president trump signed an executive order that banned the internal trainings that present a world view of the u.s. as fundamentally racist or sexist, was the language. and, sure, i suppose the congress could pass a funding and say something similar. a. paul: yeah. i guess it comes down to a

question of priorities, is it worth spending your relatively rare political capital to go after this, or do you have other issues. all right. we have to take one more break. when we come back, hits and misses of the week. ♪ ♪ you might take something for your heart... your joints... or your digestion... so why wouldn't you take something for the most important part of you... your brain. with an ingredient originally discovered in jellyfish, prevagen has been shown in clinical trials to improve short-term memory. prevagen. healthier brain. better life. mckenzie: being a first time parent is hard, you know? but then learning that your child has cancer is unbelievably hard. brennon: that's not something that we woke up that morning planning to hear.

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♪ paul: time now for our hits and misses of the week. kim, first to you. >> so, paul, this is a miss to canada's college of psychologists for trying to silence acclaimed psychologist jordan peterson. the college does not like the fact that peterson won't use transgender pronouns or that he criticized an aide to justin trudeau or that he rightly said that environmentalist policies could cause third world deaths. they want him to undergo coaching, and as he will not, he potentially faces a disciplinary hearing and revocation of his license. this isn't about his competency, this is about woke ideology. it's these folks who need a

psych exam. paul: all right. kyle. >> i will give a miss to alameda county, california, which recently announced that it counted the ballots incorrectly in the november election and a third place finisher for oakland's school board was actually supposed to be the winner. local elections used rank choice voting where voters are can asked to rank their candidates in order of preference, and there was some ballots that had the rankings mixed up, and it took two months to notice because rank choice voting is not transparent and pretty complicated. paul: all right. dan. >> a big hit to pope benedict vxi who was buried at the vatican in rome this week. once gone, figures like the late pope generally pass into history, but benedict is a man for our times. few would doubt that the9 liberal western democracies are in a crisis of values these days, both national and personal. benedict dedicated his life to the proposition that the secular seats needed to be balanced -- societies needed to be balanced

by a commitment to religious faith. he was right, and one hopes his legacy lives on. paul: hear, hear, dan. remember, if you have your own hit or miss, tweet it to us @jer on fnc. thanks to my panel and thanks to all of you for watching. i'm paul gigot, hope to see you right here next week. ♪ arthel: cleanup is now underway at the house where four university of idaho students were murdered, this as we learn more about the evidence police have gathered against the suspect and the timeline of the six week investigation leading to his arrest. hello, everyone, i'm arthel neville. welcome to "fox news live." eric: hello, everyone, i'm eric shawn. the two other major stories that we're following for you with at this hour, president biden preparing to visit the southern border tomorrow. it's the fist time he will do that since taking